Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1887-11-16
Newspaper EngIish.

ago; jet the indulgence in slipshod
English has grown upon many Of the
writer's who are obliged to turn out so
many columns daily. The influence Of
the press as an educator is simply inn
mense. There is not q household into
which tile daily, weekly or monthly
visitor comes where the student does
not, consciously or unconsciously,
strive to attain the style of the oracle
he admires. Ii this be writer re-
markable for the purity and power Of
his dIction, good; but such are nearly
~ rare as were good men in Gomorrah
Not that the American press does not
embrace the brightest or most brilliant
intellects, but many Of them are so
given to the habit of writing to meet
The e1igencies of the occasion. that
shey have fallen into The use of care
lessness, and oftentimes slipshod, Eng
lish. To be sure there are journals
which guard their pages zealously
against Inaccuracies, but few cannot
redeem the many.
Il any one can reasonably be ex-
pected to write pure, strong English it
is the editor who undertakes to cater
to the intellect of thousands, no mat
ter how cultured or how unframed
that intellect may be; and yet it is q
lamentable truth that a large proper
ton of the editorial fraternity INDUCES
in fippant, slangy phrases, loosely
joined constructions, careless meta
phors and discourtesy toward one an
other. Nothing is needed SO much as
a reform in this direction. 1t is most
favorable sign to find that many of the
foremost journals have already recog-
nized the force of simple and direct
language. There are no better ex-
amples of varied and equally admir-
able styles than The New York Sun,
Roscoe Conkling, Robert q. Ingersoll
and Tin England) William Ewart Glad
,tone afford; yet, of them all, none can
compass so much within a sentence as
the first. Whyp Because the journal
ist has learned the great secret of con-
aeRsing. He makes every word fulfill
its duty as the sign of an idea.
Then Conkling. -Ineersoll and Glad
stone come before the public only OF
intervals, however frequent, serving as
illustrations of the statement that
orators, however potent, cannot COM
mand such constant audience as the
editor. The influence of one paper up
on others can well be illustrated by the
New York Sun. When it rose above
The horizon, it was of insignificant
dimensions. 1t was the foe OF
verbiage. 1t exercised censorship over
every line. To-day, in point of con-
ciseness, it is the nearest approach to a
perfect newspaper made. The younger
generation cannot estimate the meta
morphosis which the Sun has effected
in the makeup of its contemporaries.
but those who remember the clumsy
blanket sheets, with their confused
arrangement of news, and the ponder
Gus comments, can appreciate the
change wrought by the force of q
slngle journal.
1t ought not to be necessary to tell a
rightly constituted editor to make ter
rihle example of the young man who
calls a scraper of fiddles a.professor,
shaver of chins san artist" the
seller OF few notions ga merchant"
curer of corns "a DOCTOR" When
such d writer comes to speak of a Sum-
ner, Millias, a Stewart, Hammond,
he does it in precisely the same terms.
As for the use of .editress," s'doc-
tress," .'authorass, ''poetess." for
the corresponding words now used for
both genders, the best writers have
nearly discountenanced it.
Every one knows the character in
George Ellot's novels who never "be-
gam but always commenced. He
has counter part in the young man
who informs the public that .'Mr Jones
residence was consumed by fames,"
when his house was simply burned.
And then, why, OH why! will he tell us
Mrs. Longstreet is 'ssuch charming
conversationalist" when he might say
she was Upright thinker" Length
isn't strength; the force of word isn't
in the number of syllables.
Then as to the use of foreign phrases:
such phrases as cl-deyant, boulevard.
encore, epaulette and some others have
become so Anglieized that they are re-
garded as legitimate; bat there is no
excuse for the affectation which prefers
apropos, n'importe, nous verrons,
resenons nos moutons, and SO forth
to the stronger English equivalents.
These are the pets of the sensational
novelist and the journalist with pau
city of ideas.
1t is somewhat amusing to note the
utter contempt which some journals
have for the subtle distinctions of syn
onymous terms. The geometric rule
OF things which equal the same things
equaling one another does not hold
good in rhetoric. It may seem exactly
alike to say the .above statement"
and the foregoing statement" but
when the statement is made at the end
of one column, and the reference be-
gins another, it is easily apparent how
much more appropriate foregoing"
would be.
Discriminate says: ssThe antece-